Merry had a productive working relationship with Christie

UKA chief Dave Collins said the former Olympic 100m champion will only operate as a coach despite being initially unveiled as a mentor in August.

"Linford will do some form of mentoring," Merry told BBC Five Live.

"You cannot have someone of his stature and experience training trackside and not have them offering some advice."

Interview: Olympic 400m bronze medal winner Katharine Merry

Merry was coached by Christie from 1998 up until her retirement last season and she believes the distinction between technical coaching and mentoring is blurred.

Linford always knew what he was doing and that is the most important thing Katharine Merry

The 2000 Olympic 400m bronze medallist also says Collins' apparent decision to renege on Christie's mentoring offer has been blown out of all proportion.

"Mentoring and coaching go hand-in-hand," she said. "When I was running, Linford was my mentor and coach.

"He was always aware of his job with UKA and it is basically a continuation of what he has been doing for the last nine years.

"I don't think Dave Collins is necessarily backtracking. I think all he is doing is publicly making it a lot clearer what Linford is doing.

"Linford always knew what he was doing and that is the most important thing."

Christie has been an elite coach, guiding the likes of Darren Campbell, Jamie Baulch and Tim Abeyie, for nearly a decade.

In that role, he worked under his own steam and received some payment from UKA.

However, a new pot of sponsorship money has allowed UKA to bring him on board in an official capacity at one of their high performance centres at Brunel University.

A spokesperson for UKA said the new roles would, "allow more athletes to access him as a coach."

Merry and fellow mentor Daley Thompson are in the process of beginning their roles for UKA.